Lawyer: Air Force Vet Suspect in Oklahoma Bombing Denied Medication

BIXBY, Okla. — The arraignment of a man accused of bombing an Oklahoma military recruiting station has been postponed over concerns he hasn't received correct medical treatment in custody.

Federal Magistrate Frank McCarthy delayed Benjamin Roden's arraignment and competency hearing on Wednesday after his attorney said Tulsa County jail officials weren't following his doctor's medication orders, the Tulsa World reported.

A pipe bomb exploded July 2017 in front of an unoccupied Air Force recruiting station near Tulsa. Roden, 29, was indicted and determined incompetent to stand trial.

He transferred from federal prison to county jail last month. Jailers were instructed to inject Roden with his medication, but he was jailed for more than a week before being given medication in pill form, according to his attorney Whitney Mauldin.

Roden has received the required medication in pill form the past three days but needs an injection to maintain the drug's necessary therapeutic levels, Mauldin said. She said jailers have indicated they don't routinely keep the medication in the form of an injection.

McCarthy said he "reluctantly" granted a continuance until Aug. 7.

Roden is a former Air Force member who was officially discharged from the Oklahoma Air National Guard in April after joining in 2014. The veteran wanted to quit the Air Force and join the U.S. Marine Corps but the Marines wouldn't accept him, according to an affidavit. Roden blamed the Air Force for preventing him from being accepted by the Marines, the affidavit said.

He's being held on two counts of destruction of federal property, malicious damage to federal property by use of explosive and use of explosive to commit a federal felony. McCarthy said Roden faces a lengthy prison term if convicted.

"The way it's charged, we're looking at 45 (years)," he said. "At the very minimum it's 10."